I know this place as 'THE' Dumpling King. way back in the day, this was the only place to find decent dumplings, or so it seemed. Now the name 'Dumpling King' turns up in shopping centres, and those dumplings are mediocre at best. We thought it had been too long, so returned to where our dumpling obsession took off.
Reading the reviews it looked like we were in for either great service, dodgy food, or dodgy service and great food! Which would it be?
Service was pleasing, I had booked outside of hours, and was called back in good time to confirm our booking. When we arrived, we were greeted quite quickly and seated. Our server for the evening was efficient, confirming items that we ordered with us at the time - a fair bit of pointing went on - and she seemed genuinely taken with our kids, which is always nice, so, does this mean the food will be ordinary? Well, no actually, though neither did we feel like it hit the heights we remembered. Perhaps Dumpling King is as good as it ever was, but other places have caught up, so that we're now at a stage of expecting amazing, beyond what we once had. There was nothing dreadfully wrong with anything we tried, and there were some highlights too.
Steamed Shanghai Dumplings (contains chicken and pork) could have been better if, as they were served they hadn't almost all lost their soupy interior. They ripped as our waitress served them to us, and I think the whole point of a dumpling filled with juice is to get to enjoy the broth, not leave it dripping through the steamer - bummer - from what we could tell, these were quite nice.
Pan-Fried Beijing Style Dumplings (pork and Chinese leek) tasted fine, though my oldest felt the pork flavour was too strong - ironically I didn't.
Pan-Fried Beef dumplings were also good.
The winning dumpling for us was the surprising (pan-fried) Lamb Dumplings, they also come steamed, but The Lovely Man is a 'pan-fry' kinda guy. These delights with the unexpected hit of mint were incredible, taking us back to a time when it felt like we were trying dumplings for the first time, yum!
I was excited to see Shredded Chicken with Crystal Green-Bean Noodle (with peanuts). My favourite dish at 'Happy Cook' (no longer exists as, sadly 'Happy' passed away about three years ago now) was this dish. I have been looking for a contender to replace the perfect version ever since. Dumpling Kitchen has come closest. While the noodles are not the same textually, and indeed the shape of these noodles (rectangular) is novel in and of itself, the flavour was great! I know not everyone has a fondness for cold noodles, but that's such a pity, because this dish is so worthwhile. I was glad I came if only to discover this noodle dish.
We finished with Peking Duck with Peking Duck Fried Rice. The rice was very good, we all liked it. The duck was pleasing, the pancakes I felt were a bit tough, and the flavour of the duck was not what I expected, but it was far from a bad dish. The duck came already sliced at the table, and were were invited to serve ourselves, which we were happy to do.
For dessert two children enjoyed the lychees and ice cream, one the deep fried ice cream and I the custard pancake. The pancake, drizzled with golden syrup as it was reminded me a bit of Golden Syrup Dumplings, the flavour of the custard was not so discernible, but again, this was not unpleasant to eat.
In the end, I found both the service and the food good to very good.
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